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Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: Specialist Workforce

22 March 2023

Lead MP

Geraint Davies

Responding Minister

Claire Coutinho

Tags

NHSEducationTaxationEmploymentForeign AffairsMental HealthChildren & Families
Word Count: 13441
Other Contributors: 11

At a Glance

Geraint Davies raised concerns about special educational needs and disabilities: specialist workforce in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.

Key Requests to Government:

The lead MP calls on the government to commit to meeting with all-party groups to discuss special educational needs, engage the SEND in The Specialists coalition in planning, provide a plan for improving access to specialist support immediately, define the SEND specialist workforce holistically, address recruitment and retention issues, and elaborate on funding commitments to ensure timely speech and language therapy.

How the Debate Unfolded

MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:

Lead Contributor

Opened the debate
The debate focuses on the urgent need for early intervention in speech and language difficulties, which can improve school performance and reduce social costs. There are significant challenges including long waiting lists, unclear thresholds for support, misdiagnosis of girls and young women as having mental health problems, and a lack of resources leading to suboptimal plans. Parents often feel neglected and unsupported, with many resorting to private services at great cost.

Government Response

Claire Coutinho
Government Response
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma. First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) on securing a debate on this incredibly important subject. It is wonderful to see so many people in agreement about what is needed, and to have seen the expertise on show today. I hope people can see from our SEND and alternative provision improvement plan the seriousness of the Government in trying to respond to the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities across the country. The hon. Member rightly talked about the importance of early language, which we know feeds into children's overall learning and literacy. He talked about the importance of education and health working together, and I am pleased to say that we jointly published that report, and that the Department of Health is very much working hand in glove with us on the plans. I have had the privilege to meet some of the galaxy of professionals who support children and young people with SEND. Whether they are in early years, schools, colleges, health and care settings, or specialist and alternative provision, those are some of the best visits that I do; it is a joy to meet a group of people who are so dedicated, skilled and passionate about meeting the needs of their children and young people. The SEND and alternative provision improvement plan is meant to support the entitlement set out in 2014 through a much clearer local and national focus on the strategy for how we can plan to meet those needs. The funding has increased by more than 50% over the last few years. We have announced an additional £21 million to train more educational psychologists. We have committed to working with the Department of Health on a joint approach. In the improvement plan, we announced that we will partner with NHS England to include early language and support for every child pathfinders within our £70 million change programme. We are also looking at family hubs. We have support for Nuffield early language intervention in primary schools. On the mainstream workforce, we are setting out best practice guides, starting with autism, mental health and wellbeing and early language, to ensure that the wider workforce all have that specialist ability as well. As well as setting out best practice guides, we are training 5,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators to help with early identification. I would like to turn briefly to mental health, which has been a real challenge. We have been working very closely with the NHS on this. It is investing a lot of money for hundreds of thousands of extra children. One of our first best-practice guides will be on this topic. We are training 5,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators to help with early identification and introducing the new SENDCO NPQ, which will replace the existing qualification. Improving access to the right professionals, whether they are teachers, teaching assistants or the specialists we have talked a lot about today is a key part of our plans for reform. I thank everyone who has brought this matter forward for their detailed stories.
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About Westminster Hall Debates

Westminster Hall debates are a chance for MPs to raise important issues affecting their constituents and get a response from a government minister. Unlike Prime Minister's Questions, these debates are more in-depth and collaborative. The MP who secured the debate speaks first, other MPs can contribute, and a minister responds with the government's position.